I shall keep it short, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for the invitation to appear. I hope that the information I bring will be useful to your deliberations.
I'm assistant deputy minister for science and technology at the Department of National Defence. My role is to provide the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence with the science and technology, the knowledge and innovation they need for mission success.
As adviser to Public Safety Canada, I also am responsible for providing public safety and public security partners across the country with knowledge to address the threats and the challenges that they have in their operations. I submit to you that the context of defence and security is evolving rapidly, that the military platforms are more complex than ever before, that the nature of conflict itself is more complex than ever before.
The changing nature of that conflict and the evolution of the technology will require that we engage with innovators across the country to address those challenges. I lead an organization of 1,300 people across the country, mostly scientists and engineers—some 800 scientists and engineers—who perform research and development in many disciplines from social science to engineering, medical science, and cyber areas. We collaborate with industry and academia. We have partnerships with granting councils, with universities. We give hundreds of contracts every year to industry. We work with allies, the science and technology organizations in our allied countries, to leverage their capacities and capabilities.
The scientists in the organization focus mostly on classified, sensitive, strategic research, and we leverage the knowledge of others in areas that are less sensitive. Our mandate is focused on science and technology to support defence and public safety.
We look forward to working with officials at ISED—Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada—on the innovation agenda. We do need to build a resilient, robust innovation system to support defence and security objectives in this country. We need to simplify our R and D programs. We need to increase the engagement of non-governmental organizations in delivering innovation and to create a more diversified and resilient innovation ecosystem to support defence and security objectives.
Mr. Chair, I'll stop here and be happy to answer questions.
Thank you.